What a trip to Wal-Mart taught me about convicts and God

When Alabama housewife Brenda Spahn asked that she be given a chance to change the lives of female ex-convicts, the state parole board laughed. When she insisted, they decided to teach her a lesson. They gave her seven “of the scariest women they could find,” she recalls.

Shuffling toward her destiny

After a brush with the law that frightened her with the very real prospect of jail, Alabama homemaker Brenda Spahn made a promise to God. She was going to make a difference in the lives of incarcerated women. Little did she know what she was getting herself into.